Republicans scored some major victories in passing the FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, including eliminating the vaccine mandate for members of the armed services, more money for Taiwan, and, for the first time, oversight of spending on the Ukraine war.
But it may be all for naught. House negotiators have yet to reach an agreement on funding the government after December 16, and instead of the $858 billion spending bill, Congress may pass a short-term funding bill for a few weeks that would keep most of the current funding levels in place.
It’s the repeal of the vaccine mandate that GOP members are touting, along with a promise to hold the Biden administration accountable for imposing it in the first place.
“The Biden administration must correct service records and not stand in the way of reenlisting any service member discharged simply for not taking the COVID vaccine,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a statement. He promised “to finally hold the Biden administration accountable and assist the men and women in uniform who were unfairly targeted.”
A spokesman for the National Security Council declined to say Wednesday whether Biden’s signature would be in doubt as a result of the vaccine rollback, though the House’s veto-proof majority vote Thursday reduces the likelihood of such a showdown. The president and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin both opposed the reversal, arguing that it would be detrimental to troops’ readiness — but in the end, they and their defenders on Capitol Hill were unable to overcome the GOP’s resolve to block action on the defense authorization measure absent the change.
About 98% of the active duty force has been vaccinated, according to the Pentagon. For Biden and the brass to hold not getting jabbed against such a small number of military people seems vindictive and political. Republicans are correct in trying to right this wrong.
Another overdue issue is the matter of oversight regarding spending on the Ukraine war. As of last month, the U.S. had given Ukraine about $68 billion — $38 billion in direct military aid and the rest in humanitarian and government assistance.
Republicans have already indicated they are going to take a hard look at where the money is going and how it’s being spent. For example, many Americans might be surprised to learn that some of the weapons earmarked for Ukraine have ended up with the terrorist group Boko Haram.
The oversight is needed because the administration continues to pour money down what appears to be a bottomless hole.
On November 15, the administration submitted a new aid request of $37.7 billion which, if passed, would bring the total to $105.5 billion. This new aid package is designed to last through the end of the fiscal year (September 30, 2023). However, at the current rate of spending ($6.8 billion per month), this would last until about May. At that point, unless the war has ended or settled into a stalemate, the administration would need to ask for additional money.
Yes, it’s in the interest of the U.S. to stop Vladimir Putin’s aggression. But it’s also in the interest of the Europeans who belong to NATO. And not only are they refusing to give their fair share, but they are also actually asking Biden to replenish the stocks of military equipment they’ve drawn down and given to Ukraine!
Damn right, Republicans should demand oversight on what’s being spent. And the bogus claim that they’re helping Vladimir Putin by questioning where and how that money is being spent needs to be put to rest immediately.
The aid to Taiwan is also a major concession by the Democrats.
The bill authorizes $10 billion in military aid for Taiwan through FY27 and includes measures intended to help address the multibillion-dollar backlog of U.S. foreign military sales for the island nation. Congressional appropriators have yet to strike a deal on how to pay for the authorization, with some expressing concern that the high dollar amount authorized for Taiwan security aid could eat into the U.S. State Department’s $56 billion budget.
Republicans didn’t get everything they wanted. It appears that their long battle to save the A-10 Warthog has ended in failure, and the effort to save the SLCM-N sea-launched cruise missile wasn’t entirely successful.
More importantly, they were able to block the Black Caucus from stuffing the voting-rights bill that was passed in the House but never taken up in the Senate into the defense bill. Without such a vehicle, the voting-rights legislation will expire at the end of this congressional session, but the effort failed.
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